Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Fireblood by Trisha Wolfe

""She has fire in her blood. She's clever and fearless, burns with determination." A crooked smile tugs at his lips. "And she's stubborn as hell.""

Book: Fireblood by Trisha Wolfe
Bookdictive Categorization: YA/Dystopia
It's a LOT like Poison Study+The Selection
Rating: 4/5 stars
Procurement: Netgalley ARC
Recommend? If yes, to whom?: FO SHO, to anyone who likes dystopia and YA or even NA. There's nothing too heavy, but it holds your attention. Also, I'd highly recommend it if you liked Poison Study or The Selection, as the main character trains to fight and is randomly selected to be a princess. 

This review should really be titled Mollie and the Too Good to be True Review. This book had five star potential and then BOOMBOOM a star faded away. This does not happen often, my friends. Books don't generally tease me.
This was the most appropriate gif I could find of a "tease" but Anastasia is ALWAYS acceptable. 

No, books surprise, excite, and delight me. They also disappoint, depress, and scare me sometimes. But never tease. 
So imagine my surprise when I read Fireblood by Trisha Wolfe. (Do not be turned off by my iffy tone, which continues on in this review--I REALLY REALLY LIKED THIS BOOK! I promise!). At first, I was intrigued by the Arthurian dystopian, about a girl who is randomly selected to be the betrothed of Prince Sebastian, son of the evil King Hart and future ruler of Karm, aka Kingdom Inside of a Bubble. 
What a weird mashup, right?? But like world building, I'm ALL for mashups. And though it was odd at first, I think this one worked. 
But, simply put: Zara and her dad, who is infected by a generic dystopian virus called the Virus, live on a cloning farm on the outskirts of the kingdom of Karm. Karm is supposed to be like Camelot. Naturally, there is a Round Table (it doesn't play much of a role), electric swords, jousting, outdated speech, banned literature, a secret Rebel group that wants to overthrow the king, and lots of other dystopian tropes. The world building is awesome, but there wasn't anything new to the dystopian elements. Like, duh, of course there is a rebel group. Of course Zara was raised to doubt her kingdom, and feel unsettled about the totalitarian rule. And of COURSE she's the key element. But honestly, none of this matters. OKAY, NOW FOR THE FANGIRLING!
Zara and the first knight to Prince Sebastian, Devlan, are AWESOME. I loved them both. Devlan is one of the hottest YA/NA creations I've ever read. This book doesn't seem to be romantical at first, but it totally is. It's like Poison Study but more intense. The moment Devlan and Zara finally kissed was the happiest moment of my entire day. I WANTED TO DANCE FOR JOY!!!! (but I was laying down)
At this point, you're probably thinking, "Well, if you liked it so much, then why was it too good to be true?" 
CAUTION, YOU ARE ENTERING SPOILER TERRITORY!!!!!!
PLEASE AVERT YOUR EYES IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO HAVE ANYTHING SPOILED. SCROLL DOWN UNTIL YOU SEE LARGE FONT THAT LOOKS LIKE THIS AGAIN! 
***
Prince Sebastian is what makes this story too good to be true. Every. Single. Damn. Thing that made me love this book ended up giving me a whale face at the conclusion because of Prince Sebastian. Yes, my face looked like -____________-.
Sebastian is kind of underdeveloped--we never really get to see inside his head except for when he has a few soft moments with Zara and reveals that he chose her because he saw her on a video feed and admired her silent strength. There are a few other moments, but he's a character that holds a lot of intrigue. You never really know what he's going to do. Sometimes, he's like forcefully sexual, and other times, he's just cruel. But after awhile, you get the impression that he's just, well, kind of naive and hopelessly in love with Zara. 
And then....King Hart, Sebastian's father, is found dead by Zara (she wanted to assassinate him, but changed her mind, and wanted to convince Sebastian to so he could make the realm a better place. Oh btw, you learn NOTHING about Hart, except at the very end where I'm like 90% sure he's part cyborg) right after Zara reveals that she is a Rebel to Sebastian. Instead of like, I don't know, being the same character he's been, HE BECOMES EVIL! It's like he was wearing a mask and then *whoosh* he changes into a cruel, sadistic evil king. I was like
To top it all off, Sebastian is then killed. He just gets killed off, because he's evil, and that's what happens to evil dudes. There is no resolution, no redemption, just lots of fail. This was enough to sadly knock a star off of what I believed to be a five-star review. 



OKAY YOU CAN LOOK NOW!!!!!

I would definitely recommend Fireblood. I found the characters enjoyable, the storyline engaging, and I couldn't stop reading it. This is definitely part of my Best of YA list. I would love to read it again (not that I have time to reread anymore) and especially love to see another installment! I don't know if it's a series but fingers crossed!

***an electronic ARC of this book was provided to me through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review, and in no way reflects anything beyond my gif-induced beliefs***


3 comments :

Alise said...

Love the gifs, you review definitely made me laugh :) This one is new to me and I'm wondering why I hadn't heard of it before. This one sounds pretty unique but it seems like that could be a reason why you liked it. Great review!

Alise said...

I saw

Mollie Leigh @ Bookdictive Reviews said...

I didn't even know there was a blog tour for it until just now, perhaps that's why? If it's not blowing up my dashboard then I'm woefully unaware! Thank you for your lovely comment--knowing that I make people laugh makes ME smile! :D

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